Flowers, Swords and France

Under the cloudless blue sky, Charles and Charlotte rode their horses forward together. The surrounding fields were so green and full of vitality that it was hard to imagine that all this would disappear soon.

This was their manor, but it would soon become their factory.

The early summer weather was so hot that it was hard to breathe. Before long, beads of sweat appeared on the cheeks of Charles and Charlotte. Fortunately, their destination was not far from the villa where they started, so they did not suffer in the scorching sun for long.

After arriving at the destination, they stopped their horses, and the construction workers who had been prepared came to greet them early.

"Miss, sir, you have come here early in the morning. You have worked hard." A middle-aged man with gray hair and a long face walked in front and greeted the two people.

He was originally the housekeeper of this manor, and at this time he naturally became the head of the supervision, responsible for the supervision and maintenance of the entire project construction. Of course, it is understandable that he put the greeting to Charlotte first.

Charlotte just nodded as a reply, then she got off the horse, held up her silk parasol, and looked around, as if she was very curious about this place.

Charles smiled at him gently, and then replied, "No, we just ran a distance, it's you who are working hard, thank you, sir."

"Sir, look at what you said." The middle-aged man also smiled, "This is our duty to serve the Treville family, it's not hard or not..."

"Ha... you know. We are not the kind of stingy people," Charles still smiled, and then he wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. "The weather is really hot now, and it will probably be even hotter in the next few months. You can go back and talk to the workers later. As long as the work progress keeps up with the plan, we can give a little extra subsidy every month as a reward. Of course, you and other managers can also get a share."

"Oh, that would be great." The middle-aged man bowed to thank Charles.

While chatting with the butler. Like Charlotte, Charles looked around to see the land that had changed drastically.

This used to be a fertile valley with farmland and streams. There were also farms, but now it was completely unrecognizable, with potholes everywhere, and the bare soil was exposed. The originally clear stream was now mixed with mud and dust. It turned into a gray-black color.

This was the valley that Charlotte "recovered" with her "army" a year ago, but now it has become the prototype of a factory. After the initial construction is completed as planned, it will erect several blast furnaces, and then swallow coal slag and ore, discharge pieces of steel and bursts of black smoke, making the mountains darker and the water dirtier...

How beautiful!

As for where the farmers who were driven away have gone now. Charles is too lazy to care.

"Oh, Mr. de Treville. You are finally here!" Just as Charles was still expressing his feelings in his heart, a greeting interrupted Charles' thoughts.

He looked up and saw a man walking towards him quickly.

This was a middle-aged man with black hair and an oval face with a thick mustache. His face was very serious and he looked like a missionary. However, his dusty clothes and face would not make people guess his profession wrong.

"Good morning, Mr. de Smon." After seeing who the visitor was, he immediately smiled and greeted him.

"I heard that you were coming to see me today, so I waited for you early in the morning. Really, I didn't expect to come now and wasted a lot of time..." Mr. de Smon complained in a low voice, and then he bowed respectfully to Charlotte on the side, "Of course, I'm not talking about you, beautiful Miss de Treville. It is reasonable to spend as much time as possible to wait for you..."

Charlotte smiled slightly and bowed slightly to him.

"You are such a joker, sir. We slept a little longer than usual because we were too tired yesterday. Please don't mind."

"No way! A beautiful lady like you certainly has this privilege." De-Smon complimented loudly.

Charlotte was a little polite this time, not without reason, because the other party was more or less aristocratic.

Mr. Theodore De-Smon was born into a small aristocratic family in the south, so his surname can carry the aristocratic mark. However, because he was the youngest son, he could not get much from his family except his surname. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the École Polytechnique in Paris. After several years of study, he graduated from school and became a metallurgical engineer soon after, leaving his family to start his own business.

Since graduation, he has been engaged in the design and manufacture of industrial and mining equipment for more than ten years, accumulating considerable work experience, and has a reputation in the industry for being cautious and reliable. Therefore, after being introduced by the Duke of Treville, Charles chose him as the design engineer of his steel plant.

"Okay, let's not waste time here, take us over to have a look." Charles smiled and interrupted the middle-aged engineer who was paying attention to the Duke's daughter, "Charlotte has always been very curious."

"Okay, let's go now." De-Smon did not waste any words and led the way directly.

……………………

Soon, they came to the depths of the valley, and then found several newly built earthen buildings.

"Miss, these are the blast furnaces, the molten steel will flow out from here, and then be made into various products," he seemed to be talking about his profession, and he was very excited, introducing Charlotte who was holding a small parasol, "and don't underestimate it, this is a blast furnace I designed specially, I can guarantee that after it is built, it will also be the most advanced blast furnace in the world, that's right!"

"At least for now, it will be ahead of the world." Charles added gently.

After hearing De-Smon's introduction. Charlotte was indeed a little moved, she moved closer and carefully observed the bricks and stones being laid. However, she looked left and right and couldn't see any way.

Just these gray and black things can lead the world? She was a little confused.

"That's right! After it's built, it can produce steel at a much lower cost, reducing the cost of the entire factory by half. I dare say this is an epoch-making invention that can change the world! I will definitely go down in history because of this!" De-Smon shouted loudly, his eyes full of excitement. Then, he looked at Charles with a guilty look, "Of course. Some of the ideas that Mr. de Treville told me are also very useful and have inspired me a lot. I think people will not forget his role in it..."

Change the world? And it was my Charles who did it? Charlotte's heart moved, and then she looked back at Charles. Just like in her teenage years, there was admiration and worship in her eyes. She was full of doubts, "Charles, when did you understand these things again?"

"Uh...ah...I just mentioned a little bit of ideas, which are all the fanciful ideas of an outsider. To achieve all this, of course, Mr. de-Smon's creativity and imagination are needed, and of course, years of technical accumulation." Charles was embarrassed and explained quickly. "Mr. De-Smon, you don't have to be so modest. You deserve to be famous for making such a stunning invention."

"Haha, haha, no, no, it's all because of everyone's help that I have such an opportunity..." The engineer kept modest, but he couldn't hide the happiness and pride on his face.

This is no wonder. How could an engineer not be proud of making such an epoch-making invention?

However, Charles' role in it was not as low as he said intentionally. He did play a huge role - he just stole the wisdom of others.

Human application and research of steel has a long history, but until the invention of the Bain steelmaking process in the 19th century, steel production was a high-cost and low-efficiency job. In the history of modern steel smelting, there was an extremely significant revolutionary breakthrough, that is, the Bain steelmaking process.

It was invented by British scientist Henry Bessemer in 1856. The blast furnace he designed, in principle, blows air from the bottom of the furnace to the molten iron, allowing the oxygen in the air to fully participate in the reaction, and eventually can turn 10-15 tons of molten iron into steel within 10 minutes, saving 90% of the time and cost compared with the previous steelmaking method, thus truly making it possible to produce steel in large quantities for the first time - and for the first time making it possible for industrialization to spread at an unprecedented speed.

Of course, the Bain steelmaking method is not without disadvantages. Because of the high nitrogen content in the air, the steel has a high nitrogen and phosphorus content and high impurities.

In 1879, the Thomas bottom-blown alkaline converter steelmaking method appeared, which uses a converter with an alkaline lining to process high-phosphorus pig iron. Although the converter method can use a large oxygen top-blown converter, it has strict requirements on the composition of pig iron, and generally cannot use too much scrap steel. With the further development of industry, scrap steel is increasing.

Less than ten years after the invention of the acid converter steelmaking method, the Frenchman Martin used the heat storage principle to create the open-hearth steelmaking method in 1864, and the alkaline open-hearth furnace appeared in 1888. The open-hearth steelmaking method has less stringent requirements on raw materials, has a large capacity, and produces a wide variety of products, so it became the world's main steelmaking method in less than 20 years.

However, Bessemer had the last laugh in the end. As early as the invention of this technology, Bessemer had advocated the use of pure oxygen to replace air in the converter for steelmaking. However, due to the difficulty and high cost of preparing pure oxygen, this production method was not popularized until the 20th century. Finally, in 1952, a pure oxygen top-blown converter appeared in Austria. It solved the problem of nitrogen and other harmful impurities in steel, making the quality close to open-hearth steel, while reducing the heat lost with exhaust gas, and can blow open-hearth pig iron with lower temperature, thus saving the coke consumption of the blast furnace and using more scrap steel. Because converter steelmaking is fast and energy-saving, converter steelmaking has become the mainstream of contemporary steelmaking. .

However, these things are all left for future engineers to think about slowly. I just need to make a start. Now I can be the first to build this blast furnace, and then rely on these blast furnaces to continuously produce steel to make a lot of money. That's enough. Isn't it? Charles thought.

Because he was not an engineer in his previous life, Charles only roughly remembered some introductions to the principles of the Bainite steelmaking process. Fortunately, in 1849, the technical reserves for realizing the Bainite steelmaking process have been reached, and what is lacking is only the idea.

After receiving some ideas proposed by Charles, engineer De-Smon felt enlightened. Some ideas that he had in his work for many years were slowly connected. So, after dozens of days of careful thinking, he finally came up with his new design of blast furnace. Then, with Charles' approval, it was finally decided to start construction in Giverny.

So, from the current situation. This invention that is enough to be recorded in the history of scientific and technological development and even change the face of the world has been attributed to Mr. Theodore De-Smon?

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

De-Smon steelmaking method... well, it sounds good.

Then, De-Smon talked endlessly about how creative the blast furnace he designed was. And how efficient and affordable it was. Charlotte, who was confused, was still smiling, but she was slowly getting impatient in her heart. She didn't understand what was so fun about these things, so her eyes wandered, waiting for the other party to finish quickly.

Charles, who had lived with Charlotte for so many years, of course fully understood Charlotte's feelings, so he didn't plan to say any more polite words. He directly talked to Mr. De-Smon about the main topic, "Sir. We are very satisfied with your work performance and attitude. I hope that after the construction is completed here, you can stay here as the chief engineer. You don't have to worry about the salary. It is definitely much higher than your peers."

"Hmm?" De-Smon was surprised at first, and then hesitated, "But my wife and children are not here..."

"Then take them over, I can pay for the expenses." Charles answered directly, and then said another consideration, "You also know that this is an epoch-making invention, so I hope we can keep it in our hands as long as possible..."

Charles' meaning was very clear. He didn't want De-Smon to leave immediately and let the invention spread directly-of course, it would only be effective for a while. Industrial spies in this era would not have any patents or legal concerns at all. Confidentiality measures will be broken by them sooner or later, and technology will sooner or later leak out and spread. However, as long as they can stay for a while, isn't that enough?

Under Charles's gaze, De-Smon slowly stopped talking. He was stunned for a moment, and was obviously thinking about it.

In front of Charles's firm tone, De-Smon saw the unquestionable commanding attitude of this young man under his kind appearance. He didn't dare to bet whether the other party was joking.

"Don't worry, you are not a prisoner, but the chief engineer here. As long as you work hard, I won't let you down." Charles added calmly. "Or do you disagree with my opinion?"

"Okay... okay." After thinking for a moment, De-Smon finally made a decision, "It's up to you. I understand. But you must not pay too low..."

"That's no problem. I said... We are not stingy people." Charles smiled and agreed to the other party's request.

……………………

After inspecting the construction of the steel plant, the two people who got satisfactory results set off on their way home in the afternoon.

However, this time, at Charles' request and Charlotte's half-hearted reluctance, the two of them rode together.

Perhaps knowing that the chance was limited, they deliberately slowed down the horse's pace and let it go back slowly. Under the golden sunset, the countryside was more gentle, and the air was not as hot as it was at noon. The green grass swayed gently in the breeze, as if lining up to welcome the two. This picturesque scenery made people feel relaxed and happy.

"What a pity! All this is about to disappear!" This scene made Charlotte, who was leaning on Charles' arms, sigh. "How many times can we see it?"

Although it was an inspection, she just took a quick look. After the initial novelty passed, she lost interest and just walked around with Charles. The small parasol never left her hand, and even her silk gloves were not dirty at all.

"It doesn't matter, my girl. If we lose this place, there are still plenty of other places." Charles immediately comforted her, "When we get enough money, what beautiful scenery can't we get? By then, we can live in a place that is ten times more beautiful than here, us, and our children!"

Charlotte's face flushed.

"That's what you said." She whispered after a while.

Charlotte didn't answer, but hugged her tighter.

"Charlotte, you almost scared that poor man out of his wits just now..." Charlotte seemed to remember something and joked with a smile.

"There's no way. If we don't scare him, where will our future money come from?" Charles joked, and then gently stroked the golden hair that was getting brighter in the sunset.

"Okay, don't mention him, come, let me kiss you."

"Don't even think about it!... Hey... don't make trouble... don't make trouble... the horse is going to lose control... um... um..."

"Hahahaha" Charles laughed triumphantly after succeeding.

What a wonderful day it was!

However, when he returned to the villa, the good mood he had accumulated throughout the day was immediately washed away by the servant's report.

"What? The young lady is missing?" After hearing the news, Charles roared, almost shaking the whole villa, "What are you guys doing! Hurry up and find her! Go! Go!!" (To be continued..)